With a little more than a week until pitchers and cathers report I have been seeing a lot of prediction threads.....Before each sports season me and a bunch of my friends like to take bets on Bold predictions for the League and our team. Here are mine this year:

League: The Mets will not only be better than expected, but they will be a NL wildcard team

Team: Dice-k will come off of Tommy J surgery and have a sub 3.00 era

What do you think of mine, do I stand a chance to win the pot this year? What are yours for the League and the Sox (or yankees for our evil empire loving friends)

I was going to predict that the Repuplican Party was going to name Carrot Top as their candidate for the Presidential election this November, and his running mate would be a can of Hormel Chili. But then I thought about it and decided that prediction is not quite as bold as the Mets getting the Wild Card...Posted by notin

My first league prediction was much less bold but my friends Vetoed it as not being bold enough. "Adam Dunn will return to his career norms"

Playinfg the seocnd-place Tampa Bay Rays in Tropicana Dome, it is the top of the ninth, bases loaded, two out, and trailing with the score 4-1, Adrian Gonzalez hits a higih fligh ball that lands on a catwalk under the dome. Tuled a ground rule double, the score is then 4-3. Youk then pops out to end the game.

Predictions? Red Sox again finish third in the AL East, getting the play-in WC. Playinfg the seocnd-place Tampa Bay Rays in Tropicana Dome, it is the top of the ninth, bases loaded, two out, and trailing with the score 4-1, Adrian Gonzalez hits a higih fligh ball that lands on a catwalk under the dome. Tuled a ground rule double, the score is then 4-3. Youk then pops out to end the game.Posted by summerof67

I think i would quit my job and school and become a hermit if that happens

Predictions? Red Sox again finish third in the AL East, getting the play-in WC. Playinfg the seocnd-place Tampa Bay Rays in Tropicana Dome, it is the top of the ninth, bases loaded, two out, and trailing with the score 4-1, Adrian Gonzalez hits a higih fligh ball that lands on a catwalk under the dome. Tuled a ground rule double, the score is then 4-3. Youk then pops out to end the game.Posted by summerof67

Predictions? Red Sox again finish third in the AL East, getting the play-in WC. Playinfg the seocnd-place Tampa Bay Rays in Tropicana Dome, it is the top of the ninth, bases loaded, two out, and trailing with the score 4-1, Adrian Gonzalez hits a higih fligh ball that lands on a catwalk under the dome. Tuled a ground rule double, the score is then 4-3. Youk then pops out to end the game.Posted by summerof67

Predictions? Red Sox again finish third in the AL East, getting the play-in WC. Playinfg the seocnd-place Tampa Bay Rays in Tropicana Dome, it is the top of the ninth, bases loaded, two out, and trailing with the score 4-1, Adrian Gonzalez hits a higih fligh ball that lands on a catwalk under the dome. Tuled a ground rule double, the score is then 4-3. Youk then pops out to end the game.Posted by summerof67

nightmare...let's not have this kind of talk anymore..some people scare me...LOL

In Response to Re: Bold Predictions : Yikes. These are the kinds of games that really do you in as a fan.Posted by RedSoxKimmi

Kimmi, there is a very long story that I tell about being in New York City in 1978 when Bucky (Bleeping) Dent hit the home run to put the Yankees ahead, and when Yaz popped out to end the game with men on base and a chance to tie.

That was 1978. Now going on 34 years ago. And it still hurts, like it was yesterday.

Lavarnaway hits 42 homers while replacing Salty who goes down with a season ending injury early on. Dice-K returns to pitch not one but two no hitters, one in August one in September.Posted by soxnewmex

The Red Sox win 110 games and clinch the East early.
Valentine wins MOY.
Lester wins CYA.
Crawford steals 50+ bases with a manager that will actually send him.
The Sox actually work on bunting during practice time.
Bard is a starting success and wins 15 games. Aceves gets about 7 starts but spends the bulk of the season in his usual role in the bullpen.
Lackey appears in the new Nutrisystem ads starting in July. By September, they pull the ads after Lackey checks into a Weight Watchers clinic at over 400 lbs.
The Sox beat Texas in the ALCS in 5 games, then take the series from The Phil's in 6 games. Paps hits Youk in games 2 and 4, resulting in a bench clearing brawl and the suspension of both players for the remainder of the series. Buchholz wins games 3 and 6 with the help of a rainout and wins the series MVP.
The Yankees go ape sheet in the offseason, raising their payroll to over 300 billion and vowing to defeat Boston in 2013.

After Aviles, Punto and Iglesias are all sidelined with injuries in the early 2012 campaign, John Henry learns in June that Liverpool's Luis Suarez once played professional baseball in Uruguay before becoming a football sensation, and was considered one of the best Uruguayan shortstops of his brief era. As a condition of returning to Liverpool after all the controvery he engendered recently by "racially abusing" Manchester United's Evra, getting suspended for 8 games, and then refusing to shake Evra's hand before a match upon his return this past weekend (causing a physical tunnel bust-up between the two teams later on), John Henry asks Liverpool's Luis Suarez to play shortstop. Luis becomes a defensive and offensive sensation, hitting .300 and playing sterling defense, earning him a $24 million dollar, 3 year contract from John Henry to give up his football career with Liverpool and stay with the Bosox. Unfortunately, in an early September game with the A's, Yoenis Cespedes slides hard into Suarez in a routine attempt to break up up a double play. Suarez becomes enraged, starts yelling at the umps to show Yoenis a red card, and then tells Cespedes in Spanish that he is a "dirty Cuban defector". A physical altercation ensues, and the benches empty. Quickly, Bartolo Colon and Josh Beckett become embroiled in an MMA-style wrestling match on the mound. Colon emerges triumphant, bloodied but unbowed, while Beckett is removed on a stretcher. This turns out to be Beckett's last day in a baseball uniform after career-ending groin surgery, while Colon parlays his permanent suspension from baseball into a lucrative career as a UFC favorite in his weight class.

John Henry gives Suarez one last chance to apologize to Cespedes and shake his hand before the cameras, and this time he does. He becomes even more of a new fan favorite in Boston, and things go swimmingly until late September when he starts refusing to field balls in a game, subsequent to being yanked the day before for defensive reasons by Valentine and replaced with a now healthy Iglesias. He also calls Iglesias a "dirty Cuban defector", and Iglesias becomes enraged by the "defector" part of the hurled insult. A locker room altercation ensues between the two, with Luis and Bobby V. going at it as well, and Suarez is suspended by the Red Sox. Suarez apologizes before the cameras again, this time explaining that his was an innocent gaffe, since he actually thought that, like Cespedes, Iglesias had defected as well.

Despite the impact of Suarezgate on the Red Sox in 2012, Boston beat writers praise him for effectively ending any future discussion of 2011's Fowl Beergate. To cap it off, the Red Sox get great news in February of 2013 when they learn that the Pirates are willing to eat most of Suarez's contract while sending the Red Sox two AA prospects in return for Luis. One of these prospects, another Cuban defector, becomes the future Red Sox centerfielder and a first ballot Hall of Famer, leading the Red Sox in all offensive categories for 10 years, and helping them to secure 5 World Series wins from 2014-2024. Dan Shaughnessy pens a salacious tome in 2024 about Suarez entitled, "The Reverse of the Curse: the Suarez Dynasty", and it wins a Pulitzer Prize.

Suarez himself lands on his feet, despite the fact that his career fizzles quickly with the Bucs, and that he finds himself unable to sign with any American or European football clubs because of all the controversy and notoriety surrounding his name. John Henry takes pity on his ex-employee, and finances a "racial diversity" tour for Luis throughout the US and Western Europe. Suarez becomes a re-invented sensation as a result, and parlays this into a new career as a talk show host on the Oprah network, remaining truly his OWN man after he talks Bobby Valentine into becoming his celebrity back-up host.

"Moral: If it is your Play to be a Hero, don't Renege."

- from "THE FABLE OF THE UNINTENTIONAL HEROES OF CENTREVILLE" in Fables in Slang (1899) by American humorist George Ade (1866-1944)